Ceres, a Dwarf Planet with Mysterious White Spots
Ceres is the closest dwarf planet to the Sun. Located in the asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter, making it the only dwarf planet (950 km in diameter) in the inner solar system.
Discovered by Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi, this object was later named Ceres in early 1801. Unlike other dwarf planets, Ceres is the only dwarf planet that does not have a Moon.
Citing Space Facts, NASA's Dawn spacecraft headed to Ceres from the asteroid Vesta since September 2012. There has been high interest in this mission since Ceres will become the first Dwarf Planet visited by the spacecraft.
Ceres is also one of the possible destinations for humans considering that this object has a lot of ice, water and minerals.
Ceres has a mysterious white spot and it is seen in old Hubble images and recent photos taken by the Dawn spacecraft. In addition, the Herschel Space Telescope also observes lumps of water vapor that rise from the surface of Ceres.
This is the first definitive observation of water vapor in the asteroid belt. This is thought to be caused when a portion of the Ceres ice surface warms up.
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